


Let The Sun Shine On Your Face (You Never Have To Be Afraid Again)

by colorworld



Series: Under The Blue Sky And The Sun Can I Finally Breathe Again [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dad!Tony Stark, F/M, Fluff, Fluff to the max, Fluffy Day IN the life, I'm just bad so I made Morgan a redhead, Mention of Avengers, Mention of Rhodey - Freeform, Mom!Pepper Potts, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper loves her daughter, Pepperony loves their baby girl, They have three dogs, Tony loves his daughter, here's a fic to recover from Endgame, its great, mention of Guardians, mention of Steve Rogers - Freeform, morgan plays tennis, so if you dont like that just yeet out or skip?, suggestive scene or two, thats why its rated t, they have a farmhouse now, they have a magnolia and an oak tree, they have a mini garden with lilacs and peonies and roses and such, they like to go far and stargaze at night in a random pickup truck they have, they live in a farmhouse in a field in Texas, they're just a smoll happy family, yay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-26 22:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18726409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorworld/pseuds/colorworld
Summary: “Yeah.” Tony brushes his fingers against Pepper’s cold, feminine cheek. “I love you so much, Pepper,” He whispers with endless love in his heart.“I love you too, Tony,” Pepper returns, leaning in to give him a warm kiss before they begin to drift off as they inevitably would.The father pecks his daughter on the temple before he finally relaxes his whole body. “You, too, my baby girl...You and your mom more than anything.”It is at moments like these that Tony Stark truly knows how to breathe.OR: Tony Stark swears he doesn't deserve his amazing life, but he has it, and this is what it is like





	Let The Sun Shine On Your Face (You Never Have To Be Afraid Again)

**Author's Note:**

> This.....is my recovery response to Endgame. 
> 
> I will not spoil it here in the pre summary, but it gave me incentive to write something super duper happy!
> 
> I tried to do post endgame angst and stuff, but i couldnt do it, so i wrote this and ill do more fluff and some fix its and stuff in the future!
> 
> Enjoy the fluffy fic! :D

Considering he’s had more adult and worse ways to wake up at any age from six to forty-six, having his little girl bounce on top of him and the bed was absolutely the best. 

 

Tony isn’t quite awake, yet, or he would’ve laughed. He’s just a groggy “old” (not really) man whose energy has faltered since age twenty, but it’s been improving considering that there’s been no alien apocalypse or disaster, lately. “Morgan, honey, what time is it?” He mumbles. 

 

“Six-thirty!” She answers with no regret, cognac eyes vibrant. Her toddler body stops causing morning chaos and hops off the bed, leaving extra wrinkles on the covers and the pale blue knit blanket to start falling off the bed. 

 

Tony groans and rolls over. His intelligent five-year-old daughter is correct about the time considering both the time on the alarm clock and that bright sun orange is peering its way through the blinds. “When in the world did you wake up, sweetheart?”

 

“Six!” Morgan answers eagerly, dressed in her footed baby pink elephant onesie that was incredibly soft on the girl’s body. The hood was pulled down to see more of her darling red loose curls (which the two parents thought were a pure genetic miracle) and her round baby face. They say the eyes are the gateway to the soul, and Morgan’s precious brown one is a pure example of that. 

 

Tony practically rolls out of bed, his wife slowly rising into consciousness on the other side of the bed with its comfortable sateen sheets and fluffy cream-and-teal duvet. It’s never too early for his daughter. By now, at five years old, he knew that pretty well. 

 

“Can we eat breakfast outside at the table?” The toddler innocently inquires. The sun is starting to make her hair glow, just a bit, the minimal light that comes through the tight blinds. “That’s why I woke you up so early! I thought we could see the sun come up!” 

 

The crimson-tee-shirt-and-gray-sweatpants-clothed man forced himself to stand up, stretching his arms up high, muscles and bones having their first major movement in nine hours (his sleep time is quite the progress considering his past insomniac mannerisms). “That’s always a good idea.”

 

“Uh-huh! The forecast said it’d be very sunny!” 

 

“And what does the forecast mean again?”

 

“It’s another way of saying the weather!” Morgan says, waiting to see if she was right.

 

“Good job, baby girl, forecast is just another way of saying weather.” It was Pepper’s suggestion to teach their daughter some vocabulary naturally through out their daily lives on top of learning French, especially considering that babies and toddlers are the best language learners. It was well worth it to see how much she grows, how resilient she is, and how she has a particularly excited glint in her eyes when she is told she’s right about a word meaning. 

 

Pepper turns over. “Bonjour, mon amour,” She greets while casually checking out her daughter’s French. 

 

“Bonjour, momman!” Morgan flawlessly replies with the cutest touch of an exaggerated French accent. 

 

“Comment vas tu ce matin?”

 

“Je vais bien!” Morgan nods. 

 

“Good, girl! You’re learning very well, sweetheart!”

 

“Thank you, Mommy!” Morgan runs up to give her mother a hug, embracing it plus the kiss to the forehead both parents gave often. Her face lights up when she remembers something, however, and sprints out of her parent’s cozy bedroom and into the living room. 

 

“What’cha doing, honey?” Pepper calls after her daughter with curiosity. The young girl was almost always up to something, whether it be good, bad, or neutral. Most of the time, it was good or neutral. As for bad, it wasn’t even really “bad” it was just funny and probably something they would end up helping her clean up. It was part of having children, though, and that was A-okay for the two parents. 

 

“I have to feed Dahlia, Lilac, and Poppy!” The little girl exclaims back, running into the kitchen visible from the bedroom door and taking a sharp turn to the right, assuming she’s going into the storage closet where they kept all the dog care supplies including their food. 

 

“Okay! Thank you, sweetheart!” Pepper finally slides out of bed, picking up her blush pink jaw clip and putting her hair up in a vertical twist on the back of her head. “Those dogs have turned out to be a bigger blessing than I thought. I’ve fallen in love with them and I’ve never been a huge animal person.”

 

Only was it a year ago that they decided to get not one, not two, but three puppies. As they learned very quickly, little Morgan loved canines an incredible amount. Every time Morgan went out with her mom or dad to practically everywhere whether it was the grocery store, maybe a trip to Jamba Juice, or on the way to a restaurant every once in a while, the little girl would go bonkers in glee if she saw a dog of any breed or temperament. The first time it happened was when someone brought their service Golden Retriever into Target and Morgan was in awe. Tony was picking up a carton of organic milk when he saw his daughter just standing with her hands over her mouth and eyes gleaming like gems. He immediately realized that, of course, she was staring at the sweet-looking service dog with its older-woman owner, generally wrinkly with big “granny” glasses in a teal sweater. The father gently tells Morgan she could go ask the owner if she could pet the content dog, his toddler nodding in response and nervously walking over. “Excuse me, ma'am? May I pet your puppy?” 

 

The aged woman, maybe seventy years old, turns around with her jug of sweet tea, looking surprised before she smiles. “Yes, of course!”

 

Morgan kneels onto her knees in her watercolor-rose patterned leggings, starting to stroke the happy dog’s forehead. Eventually, after a few seconds, he gives her cheek a lick and the girl giggles. “I love him! Or her!”

 

“His name is Sully.”

 

Morgan is grinning from ear to ear. “I love you so much, Sully!”

 

That was the first time Tony started to think about getting Morgan a puppy, despite never having a living animal in his whole life. 

 

The second time Morgan had a puppy fever is at the sight of when they were in the Lincoln Navigator they finally decided would be a better luxury family car than Tony’s favorite Audi sports cars. Morgan sits in the backseat and is chilling, gazing out the window at the surrounding traffic when she spots what’s inside the navy Toyota beside them. “Mommommomdadaddad, there’s two Miniature Schnauzers in the back seat of that car!”

 

Tony squints his eyes. “Two what, honey? I can’t look, I’m driving,” He says as he turns into the parking lot of Home Goods. You would think that they would have no place in their hearts for somewhere like Home Goods for home decorations and such, but the two were not allergic to more common things as a lot of the public would think. In fact, Pepper loved the store, always finding fun seasonal things to decorate the house with for holidays when they came around. This time, though, she needed a new file folder and just wanted to browse a bit, knowing that Morgan had fun in there. Pepper’s husband did, too, he just wouldn’t admit it. 

 

The Toyota is now out of Morgan’s view and she can’t turn around, still in a booster seat, but not for too much longer considering her odd extra height. “Someone had two Miniature Schnauzers in their own seats!”

 

“Uh, what’s a Miniature Schnauzer?” Tony asks his daughter, cluelessly. 

 

“It’s a breed of dog, Tony,” Pepper responds beside him, looking at a few work things on her phone. Another thing the public would’ve thought is that the CEO would’ve retired by now into a life with endless money and security, but that was not the case _ just _ yet. Pepper decided that she would retire within another two or three years because, yes, she’s a devoted mom and husband, but she is a woman who actually likes to have a consistently full plate. Plus, she was used to her job, which she enjoyed doing, so dropping out so suddenly would feel very odd and leave a hole. And no, it wasn’t because she was money hungry, as other critics might think instead. They had absolutely plenty for the rest of their life. Hell, their house wasn’t even a million dollars. Almost, but still not even seven digits. 

 

The man is able to quickly find a parking spot and parks the Lincoln, surprised he’s actually able to drive it well after so many years of racing sports cars the high price of the SUV or easily more. “Since when did you know so much about dog breeds, baby girl?”

 

“I asked Friday to tell me about a lot of them. They’re all so cute!”

 

Tony hums. “Yeah, they’re cute,” He nonchalantly agrees. The father gets out of the car and is there to hold his daughter’s hand as they head inside the store on this strangely-enough cloudy day considering how much sunshine Dallas and Dallas-metro have per year. 

 

Of course, little miss got very intrigued by the dog section filled with dog food and beds once inside. 

 

The third time was Morgan simply finding dog videos on Youtube in the big bonus room upstairs, sitting intently in Indian pose on the cushy brown sofa as she would change the videos to a new one once the previous one was done. Sun shone in from the massive windows on both sides of the room which she could’ve pulled the curtains closed so that the light would not make the Stark-made screen less visible, but she didn’t care to. Morgan only cared about the Corgi puppy romping around on the beach sand. 

 

“Morgan?” Pepper enters the family-slash-kid space upstairs. They made it be good for anything, whether it was a sleepover for Morgan’s friends, hence the light-colored sextuple-back-to-back-bunk-bed wall with its own golden wall lamps and child-sized peony-patterned bedding, plus the extra bathroom, quartz kitchenette with its own kid snack basket, and a play area that would one day be converted to an additional teen lounge by the time she was twelve or thirteen. 

 

The redhead girl doesn’t even pause the tv and turns around at an instant. “Yes, mommy?”

 

“I came to say goodbye, I have to leave for a couple of days for a work meeting in Malibu, baby,” She explains, not initially noticing the puppy videos on the tv. Pepper does, though, when her daughter gets up to come to hug her and her eyes find the corgi rolling around on the tv. “You watching puppy videos?”

 

“Yeah!” Morgan simply replies, hugging her mother closely. “I’ll miss you, mama!”

 

Pepper giggles, picking her young girl up, not worried about the body accidentally causing a wrinkle in her pale blue sheath dress. She presses a kiss to her daughter’s soft cheek. “I’ll miss you, too, angel.”

 

“You got lipstick on my cheek,” Morgan immediately starts wiping the matte cherry pigment away with her fingers as her mom puts her down, the little girl rushing to the kitchenette for a napkin. 

 

“Woops,” Pepper simply says in response with a warm smile. 

 

So, finally, Tony and Pepper discussed it in the comfortable privacy of their bedroom the night the businesswoman got home once she stopped reading a chapter of her lengthy book and put the hardcover on her semi-rustic nightstand. 

 

Tony breaks the ice initially: “I never realized Morgan loved animals so much.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“...Especially dogs.”

 

Pepper hums. 

 

Tony sighs, but Pepper beats him to his words. “I know you’re gonna say that we should get a dog for Morgan, I just have been busy doing work and...I kinda was scared to think about it?” 

 

“Why would you be scared to think about it?”

 

“I never grew up with any pets, I don’t know anything about them-Morgan knows about dogs more than I do.”

 

“That is pretty funny, Honey,” Tony smirks. 

 

Pepper tosses a decorative throw (no pun intended) pillow at her husband. 

 

He laughs as it hits him. “Okay, I get the point! But I think a puppy could be good for her.”

 

“Why? Because it teaches her responsibility, gives her a friend-slash-non-human-sibling, they’re cute, Morgan loves them, and you’d give her the whole world if you could?” Pepper raises her brows. 

 

“Nailed it.”

 

The strawberry blonde hums. “They are absolutely adorable, I know, but you and Morgan with a puppy? I can’t begin to imagine the messes you’d get into or I would lose my mind,” She mostly jokes, but in reality, she is kinda afraid of the puppy trouble. 

 

“Well,” Tony grunts a bit as he lies down, yet scooting closer to the love of his life. “Considering Morgan’s already responsible with her dolls and stuffed animals and doing her school work, a puppy wouldn’t be that far-fetched, right? Her mom has just raised her to be such a sweet, precious, and intelligent little girl.”

 

“Speaking of puppies, you’re actually giving me puppy eyes right now.”

 

“I don’t do them on purpose, I promise they just come out naturally.”

 

Pepper laughs and bites her lip-balm-glossed lip. “How big or small?”

 

Tony shrugs. “It depends on what Morgan wants.”

 

“How often would we need to clean the puppy?”

 

“Depends on the kind. Some are fluffier than others. Come on, Pepper, maybe it’d be good for us!”

 

“Mmmmmmmmm,” Pepper goes. She had to admit, her daughter would adore a puppy and would probably devote so much time to playing with it-but not too much time! They had a set homeschool schedule four days a week, and the two parents wanted to stay on top of it, but they weren’t incredibly strict on it. It was a thousand times better than sending her off to a boarding school or even some of the private schools. Yes, there were a few good ones, but all Tony could think of were the security risks of having his baby girl out in public. He even got invested and looked at curriculums and all sorts of things, actually the first one to introduce the idea of homeschool to his wife. She ended up strongly agreeing with him and they put together a balanced routine together for Morgan, and she was very content with it, learning and having fun. 

 

“As Morgan would say, ‘pretty please with vibranium cherries on top’ with puppy eyes and a bat of her thick lashes?” Tony smirks. 

 

Pepper sighs, but in a loving manner, definitely not stressed. There were a million more stressful things than a puppy romping around the expansive green back yard. “....Alright.”

 

So when they told Morgan, she was absolutely ecstatic and would not stop talking about it for days. She bounced around like a jumping bean until they found a wonderful breeder for Golden Retrievers nearby in Fort Worth the next week after Tony did extensive research (yes, he actually did research on something so random, for once in his life). They learned, however, that it would probably be the best idea for the puppy to have a companion, and Morgan voted that they get a particularly white and fluffy dog: the Samoyed. 

 

It was a tough decision, but from the moment their little girl started doting on the two puppies when they brought them home, naming them after the pretty flowers in their outdoor garden and showing them around the house, the two parents were incredibly confident in their daughter. 

 

Tony’s life is wonderful, don’t get him wrong, but his past still haunts him, sometimes, and it’s almost always from his nightmares. Yes, the medication was helping, but it didn’t completely take away every scintilla. There were nights he’d awake in cold sweat every other week or so, and they were horrible. His blood pressure was also a bit of his concern, not to mention the trauma-rooted anxiety. He’s also the master of crazy ideas, so if two dogs weren’t enough, a third puppy would settle it. 

 

Pepper can’t believe she’s standing there holding a uniquely chocolate-and-gold baby Yorkie in her arms two weeks after Tony brings up the idea of getting one last puppy to help his emotional issues, but she is. They decided a tiny baby would be a better fit considering their other two puppies would grow up to be big. On top of that, Tony simply let out his soft side and admitted he liked Yorkies, and of course, Pepper, Morgan, Dahlia the Golden Retriever, and Lilac the Samoyed love Poppy the Yorkie, too. 

 

“Eat your food!” Morgan says in the present time, giving them their chicken patties in halves in their name-tagged and color-coded dual bowls. The dogs start to eat their food as if they hadn’t eaten in days, but they had their proper servings of food daily, either given by Tony or Morgan. 

 

Tony and Pepper both came out of their generally large master bedroom out to the eleven-foot ceilings of the living room, the sun bolting in through the windows and the patio door bordering right before you enter the kitchen which was adorned with a massive gray-and-white quartz island with mildly rustic cream bar stools, honeycomb-shaped backsplash on the back countertop wall, and an oversized copper sink is on the main island. In the living room in front is an absolutely massive Restoration Hardware sofa, expansive enough for the whole family to lie on it considering its block-like shape, a lot of space from the wall of the sofa to the edge of it. Then, in the front of it, is a round marble coffee table and there are French Oak side tables to go with the sofa, rustic lamps on top with a coaster set and drawers where they kept lighters for Pepper’s candles and remotes. 

 

“You’re such good girls!” Morgan giggles at the full-grown dogs, Lilac being the first to finish her food considering she’s the quick eater. She makes a run for the patio door and makes a gentle, non-irritating bark to go outside, Tony opening it up and the dog rushes out onto the lovely patio into the red-orange burnt cocktail of a world for the moment of time it occurred.

 

He never knew if it was just him or not, but it felt a lot easier to breathe here in Texas both literally and mentally. In California, there were nice things, but, God, was there a pressure to having a Malibu mansion and living in such a crowded and chaotic place as a famous billionaire. Yeah, Dallas and its surroundings are still big, but they were forty minutes from inner Dallas in an actual suburb area. They didn’t even live really in the neighborhood. They had their own lonely lot at the community’s edge, surrounded by miles and miles of empty unbuilt field, so their yard was incredibly unique with its two massive oak trees that were perfect for an overly hot day, even more so different when they planted a magnolia tree and their own mini flower garden of peonies, roses, sunflowers, whatever Morgan and Pepper had found the most pretty that could handle the harsh Texan climate. To Tony, this was the time to breathe. No one knows he lives in Dallas, of all places, in a farmhouse, and he is never giving out his address to terrorists on tv ever again. Their family was happy here-jubilant, really. After a hell of a life, this place turned out to be a good choice. Maybe they could just be….relatively normal?

 

“Mommy, could I have the smoothie bowl you made me the other day?” Morgan asks sweetly to her mom who was brewing a relatively petite cup of coffee, a mug that had “World’s Best Mom” in fancy gold font, matching Tony’s opposite mug. 

 

“Sure, angel,” Pepper responds, having finished brewing the cup quite quickly. Even if she hadn’t, she would’ve most likely dropped it all to make her baby breakfast first. She heads to the huge sub-zero fridge that was big enough to actually walk inside just a bit, finding mangoes, passion fruit, bananas, dragon fruit, peach, coconut milk, and a single orange to mix together the consistency in a blender. 

 

“Ooh, can I help?” Morgan jumps over to where her mom stood. 

 

“Well,” Pepper has the motherly smile she’s developed since her daughter was born. She hands her daughters some of the fruit she grabbed from the refrigerator fruit area she’s organized with labels. “You can take these to the island and grab the cutting board, baby girl?”

 

“Okay!” Morgan nods, rushing over with a few different fruits and letting them roll onto the counter. 

 

“Oh, and you may wanna wash them first with water, just to be safe!” Pepper adds, being the paranoid mom she’s become over the years. Wow, motherhood was really quite the thing. Business partners didn’t have to worry, though. Pepper Potts-Stark was still the most badass CEO on the planet and will rip you to shreds if you try her. 

 

As the sink turns on and Morgan washes the fruit one at a time on her pink step-stool, Tony comes back inside, now all the dogs romping outside with each other under the Texan sun. “It is pretty nice out there, Mor,” He comments upon re-entrance to his home. Tony squints his eyes at his wife setting up the blender and his baby girl washing fruit at the sink. “Are you really making that smoothie bowl again?”

 

“Yes!” Morgan nods enthusiastically, not batting a lash as she finishes watering down the fruit, setting them down on the bluebell-patterned washcloth on the counter that her mom bought in a full kitchen set. 

 

“Those are way too trendy,” He judges, but it’s not really judging, it’s just him playing around with his family. Tony walks over to where his daughter stands on her step-stool, pressing a kiss to her forehead from behind, making her jump and squirm. “Daddy!”

 

Tony lifts his young girl up into his arms, the redhead giggling loudly for anyone to hear. “Th-that tickles!” She can barely push out coherently through her toddler laughter. 

 

“What, like that?” He smirks and ups his tickling game. 

 

Morgan screeches, making her mother checking her recipe flip book laugh and finally turn around. Her husband did this a lot, and it was absolutely precious. He really did love his baby girl just as she did. She swore on her life her little girl couldn’t have a better daddy. 

 

“Okay, I’m done, I’m done, I’ve been attacked! There’s been an attempt on my life!”

 

“Attempt means what, sweetheart?” Tony inquires as he puts his daughter back down on the stool. 

 

“It’s just another way of saying to try, but fancier.”

 

“So what exactly does ‘there’s been an attempt on my life’ mean in simpler terms?”

 

“Someone tried to kill me,” Morgan nonchalantly replies, finishing drying the fruit and gets off her stool to hand them to her mommy. “Here you go!”

 

“You’re correct, honey!” Tony’s voice is supportive in a simple tone, but just seeing him from ten feet away, you know he’s a dad who’s always a sun ray of pride for his baby girl. “Do I ever tell you how smart you are?”

 

“Like, five times a day,” Morgan estimates. She would admit full-heartedly that she loved hearing being told that.  

 

“And how much I adore you?”

 

“Probably ten.”

 

“Bingo, baby girl. Bingo.” He looks over to his wife in her pajamas and blush pink UGG robe, face cleansed, moisturized, and radiantly porcelain with its soft freckles. God, she was the most beautiful woman on Earth no matter what she does. A loving smirk grows onto his face as he walks over to his wife. “And I love you,” Tony presses a kiss to her lips. “Miss Stark,” He says right after. 

 

Morgan actually rolls her eyes out of sight of her parents. Eye rolling from the girl tends to be rare and for things she deems to be dumber. 

 

Pepper tosses the ingredients to the smoothie into the Ninja Bullet, the machine begins its mixing process, the strawberry blonde holding the cap down just in case. “So what were you planning on making for breakfast, honey?”

 

“I honestly have no idea,” Tony replies plainly, leaning against the back counter next to the oven, catching sight of all three dogs romping inside at once. They were one heck of a little herd, two relatively big dogs and a petite Yorkie. It was quite the sight to see the furry animals play and he was glad his little girl could have that experience when he couldn’t. He would’ve loved to have a dog or cat when he was younger, but Howard wasn’t that fond of animals, and their family was too busy for that, anyway. 

 

“What about the egg toast you made two days ago? That was actually really good,” Pepper suggests with a compliment. She lets Tony hold the blender cap so she can continue to make her coffee cup, pouring some collagen-infused creamer in and blending the fusion. 

 

“Ooh! Ooh!” Morgan jumps. “The hashbrowns you made last week were great, too, Daddy!” She adds, dragging her step stool over to one of the cabinets in the quest for her bright coral water bottle. The steps aren’t that helpful, so she climbs onto the counter. 

 

Tony chuckles. “You could’ve asked for it, baby girl,” He says, letting his daughter down from the quartz countertop and giving her the water bottle. 

 

“Thank you!” Morgan replies sweetly, running over to the fridge to get water for the tall bottle, Dahlia running up to her, curious to what she was doing, while Lilac just wandered around and Poppy sat at Tony’s feet for no reason at all. Then again, the chocolate-and-gold Yorkie had made an attachment to all of them, but Tony, most of all, considering the little canine was there in his best times and his worst. 

 

“Your daughter’s right, honey, the hash browns were good too.”

 

Tony blinks when a realization pops into his mind. “What happened to your little notepad where you wrote down the weekly meal schedule since you’re so organized?” He refers to the decorative pad that was formatted to sort what you eat each day.

 

“We ran out of paper, Tony, those pads only last so long, and we’ve used it for months.”

 

“Oh? Well, shouldn’t we get a new one, then?” 

 

“We literally used the last one last night, honey, we can go today or tomorrow for more,” Pepper responds to her husband. “Besides, you don’t always oblige to it, anyways,” She scolds. 

 

“Uh, yeah I do!” He says as the blender finishes its job. Tony lets go of the cap and grabs a sunflower-patterned bowl, dumping the creamy consistency in. “Okay, sweetheart, what fruit do you want on top of this?”

 

Morgan is gulping down some water when she asks, finishing with an “Ah!” noise people make when they’re finally hydrated. She turns back around to the fridge. The young girl snatches a banana and a peach and brings it over to the still-out wooden cutting board, then heading to the drawer where her mom had organized the cutting knives, flawlessly taking off the child protection mechanism on it. 

 

“Uh, Morgan?” Pepper squints her eyes, watching the child knife protection transitioning from a working function to definitely not now that her daughter can open it with no effort. “Since when could you do that?”

 

“Always,” The little girl replies simply. 

 

“Um, honey, I should probably help you with that,” Tony rushes over, trying to take over. 

 

“No, I got this!” Morgan says confidently. “I watch you and mommy do it all the time.” She peels the banana open with ease and starts to place her left fingers at one end of the fruit. 

 

Tony immediately gives his wife the, “Pep, what do I dowhatdoIdo?” look that he tends to give a pretty often amount with this child who can be quite insistent and persistent in almost any task. 

 

Pepper nods in a way that just says to let her do it. Her daughter did have a point, she watched them in the kitchen a whole lot considering that eighty percent of the time, they eat and make meals at home. The other twenty percent, they’ll end up at a good restaurant nearby or if they’re on a tight schedule, Pepper will give in and let the two get cheeseburgers at Burger King. 

 

The protective dad is reluctant, but he watches his little girl work to cut the banana into a lot of thin slices without hurting herself, so he can’t help but smile. “Great job, baby girl,” Tony beams.

 

“Thank you!” Morgan continues onto slicing the peach in half, then into mini wedges before lining them up in a circle around the bowl, the same for the banana slices. “There we go!” She declares with a distinct feeling of accomplishment in her voice, then tossing the banana peel and peach pit into the trash can before she swiped the bowl and bottle of water off the counter, toddling out to the patio and beyond. 

 

“I don’t deserve her,” Tony shakes his head. “And, obviously, I don’t deserve you.”

 

“Yes you do, you loaf,” Pepper laughs. She sips her coffee, giving her husband a soft kiss on the lips before she departs for the backyard they’ve been blessed with. 

 

Tony’s eyes show how incredibly lovesick he is with Pepper as she walks away. He swore on his life he didn’t do anything to deserve every beautiful thing he’s been given. 

 

Poppy at his feet yaps. 

 

The billionaire looks down. “Hey there, Poppy? You ready to go eat breakfast with the fam?” He’s developed a bit of a puppy voice for the dogs. 

 

In response, Poppy romps off and Tony follows. The sun has gone up some more and the sky is transitioning into a morning cream and blue, soon to be brilliantly intense of a hue at least by nine or ten. The short-cut grass is an intense green, as well as the leaves on the magnificent oak tree that came with the property for reasons the two didn’t know, a pretty sizey trunk roots from the ground, but the impressive factor was how poofy it was, giving off tons of shade with minor beams of sunlight able to get through. Besides the oak, they decided to plant a Magnolia tree on the opposite side of the yard, wind swaying the blush pink flowers. The last touch of plants was a miniature garden that Morgan thought would be a good idea, also a source of names for the dogs, for there were poppies, dahlias, and lilacs, but also some lavender, sunflowers, roses, and peonies. It wasn’t very organized since it was Morgan and Tony’s doing on a spring day when they were home alone and bored of watching Finding Nemo (one of the little girl’s favorite Disney movies). Thankfully, Pepper came home just as the sun was starting to set to see her family eating pasta and drinking lemonade with the dogs sitting with them on the rustic farm table set’s seating bench, eating out of their own bowls in the cool almost-night time temperatures. Poppy needed a stack of cushions and a highly aware Tony beside her in case she fell, but it was all okay, and the Yorkie seemed to have good balance. 

 

From that day forwards, Pepper knew that was one of the best things she’s come home to in her whole life. 

 

The strawberry blonde sits down while Tony throws Lilac a toy for the fluffy Samoyed to fetch. As her daughter starts eating into the smoothie with her spoon, Pepper just shakes her head. “You’re gonna need a lot of protein to make up for all the sugar in that. At least it’s natural.”

 

“Mm-hmm,” is all Morgan says in response, eating as just what she was: a hungry child. 

 

“What about the patties I made you the other day?” 

 

Morgan blinks at her mom’s suggestion in confusion, unable to remember what exactly that was, trying not to be distracted by flashes of Dahlia and Lilac playing with each other. “Patties?”

 

Pepper takes another sip of her coffee and re-adjusts her hair. “The cauliflower chickpea patties? You like those, right?” 

 

Morgan hesitantly nods. 

 

The mother can tell that her child definitely does not want to have the patties she made ever again, despite supposedly eating them all. She must have fed them to Dahlia who loves to steal their food the most. “What about fried rice?”

 

The auburn-haired girl enthusiastically says “Yes,” and Pepper knows she hit the mark. “Can I add cauliflower and broccoli to it?”

 

“Okay,” Morgan complies before she carries on with quickly eating her bowl. The sun illuminates the vibrant hue and its hidden gold highlights, giving her light and soft cheeks a film of light over them. 

 

Pepper realizes that she needs to go over the schedule. Morgan had tennis lessons at nine, she has a business call in an hour, they should probably take a morning walk with the dogs on top of a night walk, call to arrange a playdate for Morgan with their Lan’s daughter, Caroline, and she needs to see when the Guardians would make a stop on Earth so Morgan could see her best “space friend”. More felt missing, though, so the businesswoman wished she had her planner. 

 

“All done,” Morgan yaps, running with her bowl back inside the house. 

 

Pepper turns her head over as Tony throws a frisbee for Dahlia that Poppy only wishes she could jump to steal. “You should start getting dressed around eight or eight thirty for you tennis lesson!” She calls after the toddler. 

 

“I will!” Morgan calls back, Lilac running in after her, the two other dogs following soon after. They were probably going upstairs to the bonus room, or maybe Morgan was gonna try her best to make her bed, Pepper didn’t know for sure. She was generally unpredictable like Tony, a dangerous trait in a toddler, but she knew her daughter well enough to know that she rarely causes too much trouble this early in the morning. 

 

Tony looks over to his wife, now alone in the gentle breeze of the yard and field, hearing how the wind subtly affects the leaves on the oak tree. He just can’t help but have a soft grin. “You’re so gorgeous,” He is practically breathless. 

 

Pepper returns a facial expression similar to his, now heading over to her husband. “You’re so sweet. I mean, like, I still have five more pounds from little miss, but running after our five-year-old really helps.”

 

“You’re beautiful with or without five extra pounds, Pep. Heck, you glowed the whole time we were expecting our angel who’s probably upstairs doing only God knows what, right now,” Tony steps closer to his wife, close enough that he could dive in and kiss her like he’s tempted to. 

 

Pepper just giggles because she’s convinced he’s the sweetest man on the planet. If she told her past self ten years ago she would think that now, she would find future Pepper Potts, or Pepper Potts-Stark, which would’ve disturbed the assistant version of herself. Yeah, she would admit that even back then he was kinda charming and good-looking, but the only man she will ever think of when someone says “handsome” will be Tony. Not some actor or fellow businessman. Just Tony always and forever. 

 

He can’t resist finally leaning in to press his lips against his wife’s that are soft and flood him with the fuzziest feeling that morphs to pure passion, resting his rough hands on her slender hips, still in a robe and pajamas over the creamy porcelain skin he’s caressed before. Their foreheads touch, their breathing adding to the already warm weather of the northern Texas field. 

 

“You know, as tempting as morning intimacy in the bedroom would be, our little girl has a busy day ahead, and so do we,” Pepper regrettably halts him.

 

“We could always make little girl plural, you know? I think another red-headed angel with crystal blue eyes and your freckles could be really damn adorable,” Tony ponders with a smile-borderline-smirk. 

 

Pepper backs away, giving her husband’s arm a pat. “A precious picture, but that’s a conversation for another time,” She brushes away. The strawberry blonde takes her hand in his to lead him into the house. “Perhaps you just need to eat…something else,” She recommends quietly, practically feeling guilty since this is supposed to be a child-friendly environment, but the magnitude of it flexes in their bedroom.

 

Tony is pretty struck by this. “How am I supposed to get over it, now?” He jokes. It was Pepper. That was an impossible task.

 

Pepper doesn’t answer that and instead changes the subject. “You were gonna make the hash browns and egg toast. I’m starving for food,” She adds the specification to not give him dirty ideas. “By the way, you need to take Morgan to her tennis lesson because I have a long phone call with some people I am not excited to deal with.”

 

“Yeah, that’s not a problem,” Tony replies as they both are now inside and he heads to the kitchen to start the skillet, but pauses. “But if I take a shower-”

 

“Don’t you want to take our time?” Pepper inquires calmly. 

 

Tony gives in, not really _ that  _ bothered. “Yeah, you’re right,” He says meekly. 

 

Pepper has that slight head tilt to add to the weight of her words. She wasn’t really annoyed, per se, she doesn’t tend to get irritated over things like that. Lack of availability for a sex life was just part of parenting, but they were incredibly happy, otherwise, and there’s always a long pocket of time somewhere. “I thought so.”

 

Guilt skyrockets. “You know you are more than just that, right? I’m sorry that I came off that way-”

 

“Tony, Tony, it’s fine! Let’s just get dressed, this isn’t a serious argument,” Pepper sweeps it under the rug. Of all the problems they could have, this was not one, period. Worse problems would include an intergalactic disaster. Their relationship problems were at a range of zero to zero-point five, and she can’t even think of an issue worth half a point. Pepper presses a kiss to his lips with an, “I love you,” before she heads off to her home office to do some pre-meeting tasks. 

 

Tony’s bad feelings had eased, now wondering where his daughter is before he starts to make him and his wife food. “Hey, Morgan?” He yells to the upstairs. 

 

Pitter-patters of child-sized feet come out to the hardwood-floored hallway that the stairs lead to, visible from below. “Yes, Daddy?”

 

“Whatcha doing up there?” He inquires. 

 

“Reading and watching Octonauts!” She answers from above, desperate to go back to what she was doing, shown by jumping up and down. 

 

“You’re doing both at the same time?” Tony laughs. 

 

“Yes!” Morgan says and sprints back to her bedroom. 

 

Tony just shakes his head and yells an, “I love you,” before going back to his cooking, hearing a reciprocal response and he giggles, beginning to attempt cooking the egg toast and hashbrowns just as good as he made them last time. 

 

Within half an hour, the husband finishes the food and brings a big plate to Pepper, still working on some tasks, so she tells Tony she’ll eat in her office, but to also go check on their daughter. 

 

Arriving in Morgan’s room is always a burst of colors and positivity. The walls are bubblegum pink, excluding the cream shiplap accent wall where Morgan’s tufted bed sits with rustic white lamp sconces beside the headboard, windows with ledges on the other side of the sconces, matching color and style nightstands are underneath with picture frames. To the right of her bed are the big windows that take up almost the whole wall, just a good bit of room for curtains to sit. In one of the corners resides a sunflower yellow rocking chair that is covered in tons of folded blankets in all sorts of weights, textures, and colors, a family photography canvas of them with baby Morgan sits above the bright chair’s hue, being matched with the vibrancy of the grass and a baby Highland cow. On the wall in front of her bed is where a built-in media center is, shiplap behind a fifty-inch tv and beside it in decorative cubbies where books and trinkets sit. On the far left of the room is the bathroom, master size like the bedroom with a clawfoot bathtub, a wide window sits above that shows her the field that surrounds the house. There is also a marble honeycomb tile shower with petite windows at the ceiling’s edge, a very slight slope drain replaces a common round-holed drain. On the wall horizontally opposite of the bath and shower are dual-copper sinks with marble countertops, the floor matching, as well. The bathroom mat set is mango-themed, some of them the actual fruit and some just the color. Even on the counters are a coordinating organization set. 

 

“Hey, baby girl,” Tony knocks on the open door and steps inside. “How’s the book?”

 

Morgan is lying at the footboard of the bed on her belly with a random episode of Octonauts on her tv, flipping through pages once she comprehends all the sentences on the book paper. “It’s great,” She answers without lifting her head. “Shelly finally found the panda, so that’s good.”

 

The odd, but brilliant thing about Morgan is that, yes, she is generally good at math, but she is an ultra-advanced reader. The two parents assume she got it from Pepper, Tony’s intellectual opposite, math versus words. She was able to fly through picture books all by herself when she was two, and she started to read thin one-hundred-page chapter books when she was four, so she was on track to be able to read young-adult-length books by fourth or fifth grade, maybe a little sooner or later. The only problem was that she would probably not be able to grasp the intense ideas in them that come with age, not reading level.

 

Tony has absolutely no idea what this book is about, but Morgan adores pandas, so it must’ve been likable, right? He goes and plops down right beside her petite body on the full-sized bed. “Wow, kiddo, you look like you’re almost done.”

 

“Yeah, I think I have ten pages left.”

 

“I’m so proud of you,” He grins. His own dad would’ve never ever told him this a lot like he did, nor would Howard have even once. Tony would make sure that his little girl knew how much pride he had in her until the day he died whether she likes it or not. He would swear everything on it. 

 

“Thank you, Daddy,” Morgan thanks sweetly, finally looking up from her book. Her eyes catch something happen on the tv and she giggles. 

 

“How many of these have you recorded, by the way?”

 

“Um...a lot?” Morgan blinks. She has no idea. 

 

“Morgan has recorded twenty episodes, Boss,” Friday answers the question for the young toddler. 

 

Tony laughs and plays with one of his daughter’s auburn strand as the recording list comes back up. His face contours into a perplexed expression, though. “Honey, why’d you record Jurassic Park?”

 

“Because I wanted to watch it,” Morgan goes back to reading, no guilt in her voice. 

 

“It’s kinda scary, though. Dinosaurs eat people.”

 

“As long as they don’t eat puppies, I’m okay. They kill, they swear, they scream, big deal.”

 

Tony hums in response, trying not to snicker. “Well, I don’t know if mommy would be okay if you watched this alone or without you telling her, so maybe we could watch this tonight or tomorrow night? You know, we’ve wanted to do the whole hang a sheet on a string, put up fairy lights, and use a mini projector to watch a movie, remember?”

 

“I rather watch Tangled, first,” Morgan flips another page after carefully re-reading her current sentence. Her dad was distracting her, but it wasn’t a big annoyance. He never was. 

 

“Than Tangled it is, kiddo,” Tony gives her a quick kiss on the cheek and she squirms a bit to the side. “Morgan, you’re not allergic, geez.”

 

“Are you  _ sure _ ?” Morgan squints her matching eyes at him. 

 

“You’re my daughter and I can guarantee you’re not allergic to love.”

 

“Hmph! You’re right,” The little girl admits. 

 

Tony hums. “Well, I gotta go get dressed because I have to take you to your tennis lesson with Miss Kylie,” Tony hops off the bed, waiting for her always enthusiastic reaction. 

 

“Yes!” Morgan pumps her fist up and yanks it down. She loved learning tennis, but she would never have anyone else teach her except Miss Kylie (except, of course, if her parents knew how to play, but they don’t). 

 

The dad smiles before departing to go downstairs. He showers and throws on a red t-shirt and some khakis with tennis shoes. It was definitely not a look he had ever worn ten years ago, but it’s not bad, now, along with the lazy dad shirt and sweatpants look. There was no obligation to look perfect to the very particle, anymore, but he wasn’t completely slacking. 

 

The clock hits eight forty-five and Tony has wondered where the time went between him getting dressed a half hour ago and now. TVs did that, he supposed. “Morgan?”

 

At that very second, small feet in tiny tennis shoes come running down the stairs. Morgan is dressed up in a bright pink Lilly Pulitzer tennis dress with a matching baseball cap (it’s good for her face since her skin is easy to burn in the sun), red curls tied back in a soft ponytail through the ponytail hole in her cap. The young girl carries her child-sized tennis racket with her. She jumps lands at the end of the stairs with a “thump” of her feet. “I’m ready!”

 

“Yes, but are you wearing sunscreen on your face?” Tony inquires, holding a tube of child’s sensitive-skin-safe sunscreen, a kid cartoon design on it, her everything bag in the other hand filled with anything a five-year-old Morgan Stark could need. 

 

Morgan immediately has a “womp” frown. “Nope.”

 

“Didn’t think so. C’mere, let me put this on you.”

 

Morgan walks over and Tony yanks her baseball cap off so it just sat with a gap between her head and the inside of the hat’s roof. He squeezes a moderate amount out, dotting one for each cheek, one for the nose, forehead, chin, and then starts spreading it around her skin, finally patting it in, repeating the same routine for her arms, not bothering with the legs. “Also, you gotta wear your sunglasses, kiddo, they’ll protect your eyes.”

 

“No one else does,” Morgan shrugs, despite holding them in one hand because she knew one of them would make her wear the glasses, despite them being pretty cute.

 

“It’s because they don’t protect their eyes, but we want you to, sweetheart. The sun can really hurt them, and it’s super super sunny today.”

 

Morgan has this petite sigh that could easily make some people feel guilty, instantly, but both parents know that when she does it, it is never _ that _ big of a deal, whatever she is sighing about. “Okay.” She slides the sunglasses onto her face over her nose bridge. “They’re snazzy.”

 

“Then why don’t you like to wear them?”

 

“I dunno.”

 

Tony just snickers, taking her hand and leading her to go get the leashes for dogs since it was only a walk to the clubhouse tennis center which was not usually crowded at this hour. They had just started giving her basic lessons a month ago, thinking it would be something she could enjoy. If she didn’t, though, they decided they could try a different sport. However, Morgan was absolutely hooked. She always had a huge grin on her face learning, which part of it was probably Kylie, but ninety percent was the game itself. The little girl was progressing quickly, having learned serves and such. Plus, it was pretty fun for both parents to watch her have as much fun as she does with tennis. Then again, she has fun with tons of things, and it just makes them happy more than anything in the world to see their daughter with the purity of her smile. 

 

The duo put the comfortable harnesses and connect the leashes to the dogs, no resistance from them, whatsoever, considering that Dahlia and Lilac were very eager to please and lied back. Poppy has a bit of an attitude, but nothing too hassel-ous for them to handle. They were all good dogs. 

 

“Okay, you three, let’s go,” Tony takes Dahlia and Poppy while his daughter takes Lilac, his hand holding her small one, still. The sun blazes in the doming blue sky above as they walk, neighbor’s houses in the distance looking sharp from yard to roof. 

 

It was a relatively short walk, but Pepper said the walking was good for them, anyways, so it didn’t matter unless they walked for longer than ten minutes. They arrive just about on time, Kylie Salvato waiting in an aqua blue sports tank with a matching skirt over her tan skin, her medium-length glossy black locks handing down from her head. “Hi, Morgan!” She greets with cheer, but not in a squeaky or overly cheery manner. 

 

“Miss Kylie!” Morgan exclaims, rushing over, even with Lilac still on the leash and harness. “I missed you!”

 

“Oh, I missed you, too, sweet pea,” The young adult chuckles. She looks back up to the billionaire she still can’t believe she sees two times a week. “How’re you, Mr. Stark?”

 

“How many times have I told you to call me Tony, Miss Salvato?” Tony smirks as he takes Lilac so that he now has three dogs on leashes with him. Who knew he’d become such a dog dad. Tony from even just four years ago would’ve found this incredibly weird. He wouldn’t trade it or his current life for the world, though. 

 

“Well, Mr. Stark, you are calling me Miss Salvato, still,” The tennis trainer retorts. 

 

“Okay, Kylie, how are you this morning?”

 

“Just fine, thank you.” She looks back to the small girl she can’t help but adore teaching and being around. Too bad she couldn’t babysit her. “You ready to play, Morgan?”

 

“Uh-huh!” The little girl rapidly nods, her eyes shining as if they were diamonds. 

 

“Okie dokie, then! Might wanna get a good gulp of water, it’s probably gonna warm up some,” Kylie recommends, stretching her arms out casually. 

 

Morgan sweeps around, about to ask for her water bottle, but her daddy has already handed it to her. “Oh! Thank you!” She says before quickly unscrewing the cap and chugging ice cold water down. 

 

Kylie can’t help but grin ear-to-ear at the young kid. “Your dad is very prepared for you, there, kiddo!”

 

“He’s the very best!” Morgan smiles with her nose scrunching. 

 

“I bet so,” Kylie simply replies. “Ya ready?”

 

The tennis trainer and her trainee go to start playing while Tony retreats to his own table on the clubhouse wrap-around patio facing the tennis court so he can watch his daughter play in the shade, especially since Lilac is sensitive to the heat, which they wished they realized before getting a super thick-haired dog. Sometimes the obvious does not go to his head. 

 

The session is an hour long, but it’s okay since Tony can just grab a juice, chill, and just breathe. For years, he didn’t quite get that privilege, but now, he does. Tony is absolutely positive he’s done nothing good to deserve such a wonderful life, wife, and baby girl, but he’s got it. This is only something that he could theoretically dream of, but he’s had years of no dreams and only nightmares. Now? He tends to sleep much better at night, these days, and he’s progressing slowly, but surely. It’s much better than nothing. 

 

Poppy lies peacefully in Tony’s lap while both Dahlia and Lilac chew on their dog bones that were supposedly good for their teeth. Poppy makes a move of personality, however, when she rolls over onto her back, which Tony just looks down at and says, “Amazing.”

 

For a full hour does Tony go unbothered besides Morgan’s water-plus-hug-her-dad breaks, all three dogs being mostly well behaved except for the occasional reasonless bark from Dahlia that just confuses Tony before she stops. Meanwhile, Lilac just stops eating her bone and sits happily with the whitest fur and deepest black eyes you’ve ever seen, chilling and panting with her pink tongue. Poppy does not halter her snuggling on Tony’s lap, she’s just the snuggliest dog of all of them.

 

Tony could never say which dog was more unique, period.

 

Morgan finishes right on time at ten a.m, more people starting to come. Tony gets up with the dogs, putting small Poppy back in her harness and on her leash, taking them towards his daughter and her trainer who’s giving the toddler a high five. “Awesome job today, sweet pea! You did so well!”

 

“Thank you, Miss Kylie!” Morgan beams. “Daddy,” She sweeps her body around. “Miss Kylie says I did an awesome job!”

 

“Heck yeah you did, honey!” Tony praises supportively. He was so proud of her, he really just was. It was an undeniable fact. Plus, Morgan adored Kylie and he doesn’t think anything bad of her. Kylie doesn’t pressure her, pester her, roll her eyes if she does something wrong. She’s so good with her and Morgan loves her, so that’s what matters. 

 

“We’ll see you on Thursday, Kylie!” Tony waves. “Have a great day!”

 

“You too! Thanks, Mr. Star-Tony,” Kylie corrects herself, waving her goodbyes to Morgan as they walk back to their house, sun still shining and rising through the Texan blue sky. 

 

The Stark father and daughter finally return through the side door with three dogs rushing inside, not caring about their harnesses and leashes. Morgan sprints after them to get the gear off of them. 

 

“Hey!” Pepper smiles, picking up her daughter and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before she plops her body back down for her to continue on her chase for the dogs around the living room. She looks warmly to her husband. “How was her lesson?”

 

“Fantastic,” He answers brightly, putting Morgan’s bag down and taking his own sunglasses off. “Kylie was great as usual. We should really pay her more, though. She could totally get a full-year salary off of this.”

 

Pepper shrugs. “Sounds good to me. She’s always great when I go with Morgan to watch her.”

 

Tony hums positively in response. 

 

“Anyways, the school schedule for today is she’s gonna do forty minutes of math first thing, forty of science, then vocabulary, French, writing, and then some history. I gotta do a few things, but I have a big gap for writing and after, if you need a break,” Pepper explains. 

 

“Got it,” Tony nods. “You have the notes on what she’s learning?” He inquires. The father is almost absolutely sure he knows what she’s learning, considering he teaches her as well as Pepper, but he needed to know completely.

 

“Yeah,” Pepper hands him an eight-by-ten paper-sized pink Five Star. “For math, she’s working on adding and subtracting double and triple digit numbers-”

 

“Yeah, I remember,” Tony looks over the organized pages by day, subject, and any way his wife could meticulously sort the information. “Are the bear counters in the school cabinet?”

 

“The bear counters are in the school cabinet, Tony,” Pepper nods and confirms. 

 

Tony heads to the secondary office across from Pepper’s that’s actually Morgan’s school room with its own built-in double-sided booth, table, and cabinets. He traces his finger to the one labeled “Math” and opens it up by its copper handle, immediately snatching the jar of plastic bear counters from the top shelf plus Morgan’s math workbook from the shelf underneath. The last cabinet on the right end of the collection is next to the math selection, labeled “Extras”. He gets a few sharpened pencils, wrapped neatly in different colorful washi tapes like the two of them did on one rainy day, four sheets of lined paper, and a Rilakkuma eraser for the toddler to use for her math lesson. 

 

When Tony turns around, he sees Morgan romp inside, now wearing one of her favorite dresses: a white sleeveless sundress with red roses and a white background that sits barely an inch above her knees. She has a lot of the same ones, just with different patterns like sunflowers, watermelon, lemons, bluebells, lavender, and such. Her closet, though, is huge, and definitely has a lot more than her favorite dress. “Mommy told me I have math first?” She asks in practically a mournful manner. 

 

“Yeah, baby girl, we’re doing more addition and subtraction of double and triple digits,” Tony confirms. He knows math isn’t her favorite subject, even though she’s good at it, but it should be fine. If it really frustrates her, they can move onto science or go back to it later. He plops down on one side of the cushy booth and taps the table. “Come sit by me, kiddo, we’ll work out the math, I promise!”

 

Morgan nodded, a slightly more comforted by her dad. She slides onto the booth next to her dad, wrapped around by her dad’s arm and earns a kiss to her temple. “Now, where did we leave off last time with mommy, Morgan?”

 

“Um, she gave me four problems and I had to solve them.”

 

“Would you like to start with that? I bet you remember more than you think you know.”

 

“Okay,” Morgan replies, her confidence feeling boosted. 

 

Tony writes out four different math problems separated somewhat neatly on the paper, two double-digit and two triple-digit. He slides the paper over to his young child. “Don’t be afraid to ask me for help, honey, but I still want you to think about it before you know you’re stuck, okay?”

 

“Yeah,” She is quick to start her math problems. The first one was pretty easy, getting an answer down in no time. The second one is a bit harder, Morgan biting her lip at it, but she is confident in her answer. The third one, though, she stares at, confused by the zeroes and things.

 

As much as Tony would love to snap to it and just write it out for her, he is convinced that he just needs to let her think. Pepper’s teaching methodology was pretty solid and sensical despite her having no siblings or anything close to a teaching degree or certificate. 

 

Eventually, Morgan works out the problem and is proud of herself, shown by a smirk, but her frown boldly returns at the next problem. She thinks and thinks and thinks for a good three minutes straight, trying her best not to ask her daddy for help, even though she wanted too. Another five minutes passes somewhat quickly, considering her brain is really occupied by this problem. Morgan sighs in defeat. “Daddy, can I have help?”

 

“Of course you can, baby. I’m just glad you thought about it, that’s great!” Tony compliments before proceeding to carefully explain the math equation to her. He did not give any care in the world that he was a supergenius who supposedly wouldn’t have time for teaching a kid math. This was his daughter and he would teach her whatever is needed. 

 

The duo work on more math progression, Morgan bored, but Tony makes sure she’s at least engaged, hopeful she remembers whatever they discuss at the booth. They use counters, write out things, and other methods to learn the math before forty minutes is up, which comes quite quickly, which makes Morgan pretty happy. Science isn’t her favorite, either, but it’s better than the math. 

 

“I wish I could learn astronomy,” Morgan finally says randomly in the middle of her studying.

 

“Who says you can’t?” Tony asks, still beside her, helping his daughter in any way needed. Sometimes, it may be a bit difficult to homeschool their young daughter, even with her being an above-average reader and able to do a lot more work in a year than the common school layout, there was no place Tony rather be. 

 

“Some schools start to learn in high school. That’s a  _ super  _ long time from now,” Morgan frowns. She wanted to learn about stars right now!

 

“Well, honey, there are certain requirements for what you learn per grade level, but it doesn’t mean you have to learn only what is required-”

 

“Required,” Morgan murmurs. She doesn’t remember what it means. 

 

Tony picks up on this in a snap since it’s her way of asking for help. “It means to need? I require you to eat three meals a day, I require you to do this chore, that chore?” He gives examples, knowing she’ll understand. 

 

“Oh!” Morgan’s face is now a lightbulb. “I require...I am required to be eighteen years old to join the military?”

 

“Yes, but remind me to tell you to never ever join the military.” All Tony can think of, besides Rhodey, is every single person with him in that truck under the Afghan sun. That was all the incentive he would need to keep Morgan away from ever thinking about something like that. 

 

“Daddy, tell me to never ever join the military,” Morgan replies immediately with a smirk. 

 

“Never ever join the military.”

 

“Why not?” She squints her eyes. “It keeps our country safe.”

 

“Yes it does, and there are many honorable people who do, I’m just a super overprotective father who does not want to see two soldiers at the door with sad faces and just know that you’re gone,” Tony blurts without a thought. 

 

Morgan is still confused, not having known the gravity of war and terror yet as a five-year-old who lives in a happy, lovely home with a wealthy family. “That’s what happens when a soldier passes away?”

 

Tony nods. He would explain it to her, just not too happily. There was not really people to go into details about things when he was a boy. “When a soldier passes away, two or three soldiers will go to the family’s door whether it’s your husband, wife, parents...and you get the news,” Tony debunks quietly. 

 

“That’s really sad. I’m glad that didn’t happen to Rhodey.”

 

He really has to work at it to scare away the images of Afghanistan from his head. “I know, honey, but Rhodey didn’t go overseas to the Middle East.”

 

“Oh? What did he do?”

 

“Just...other stuff. Anyways, what about astronomy?”

 

“Yeah!” Morgan eagerly nods, a switch being turned inside her. “Can I learn it?”

 

“You can learn it on your own, or we can put it in your schedule to learn after what you’re learning.”

 

“Hmmm,” Morgan thinks for a good moment. “I want to learn at least a little.”

 

“Okay, we can do that,” Tony settles. “We gotta finish your science work, though, because you know what you like more than science? Vocab.”

 

Morgan flies through vocabulary within half the time needed, Tony deciding they could probably do the test tomorrow that Pepper wrote down with question marks by it. The next thing was French, another mostly easy subject was also done with ten minutes early since she was just learning pretty well and an early lunch could do some good for both of them. 

 

“Okie dokie, whatcha want for lunch, baby girl? Mommy’s probably still working, so I can probably whip something sufficient up,” Tony takes his daughter’s hand, letting her swing their arms as they walked to the kitchen. 

 

“Ummmmm,” Morgan trails. “I don’t know.”

 

“That’s okay, we’ll just look in mommy’s, uh, little recipe book she keeps over here.” They stop at the counter and Tony opens up the thick book, flipping to the lunch tab. “I’ll just go down the list. Strawberry kale salad?”

 

“Nope,” The little girl declines. 

 

“Um, avocado rice bowl? That’s another trendy recipe your mom’s been making,” Tony nearly scoffs, but refrains. 

 

“I’m having rice tonight.”

 

“No problem,” Tony keeps going. He blinks furiously at the next one which was even more ridiculous. “Sushi burger? It is at this moment I wish we had a local shawarma place,” He thinks back to New York City when he and the team ate together after battling Loki. Good ol’ days, huh? Not really. Tony sighs and looks at the next thing on the list. “What about the chicken, bacon, steak kabob-you love those.”

 

“It’s not made from animals, right?”

 

“Nope, it’s the vegetarian chicken, bacon, and steak kabobs we found at the store. They’re impostors,” Tony jokes with a smirk, going to the fridge to find the pre-made-and-packaged meal. 

 

“But I don’t want to hurt animals!” Morgan practically whimpers. What could her parents say? She was very tender-hearted towards anything with fur or feathers. The little girl, however, loathes snakes with a burning passion, and she will sprint from bees or wasps faster than she’ll run for food. 

 

“I know, baby girl,” Tony closes the fridge with the kabob packaging in hand, opening it on the kitchen counter to plop in the microwave. “I’m just messing with you, I wouldn’t have you eat real steak, pork, or anything if you didn’t want to.”

 

Morgan crosses her arms. “Messing with me isn’t very nice,” Her voice is laced with something equivalent to the sass of a little girl. 

 

“You’re right, but it’s okay, you can do the same thing to me when you grow up.”

 

The redhead girl tilts her head. “Why should I?”

 

“I know you will. You’re just like me. You’ll most likely end up sarcastic and rocking out to rock and metal, have a cocky smirk, be smug if you prove your uncle Steve wrong about anything, which you will, plus your mommy and I.”

 

Morgan shrugs. “Sounds good to me.”

 

“It does, doesn’t it?” Tony slides the kabobs in proper containment into the microwave for an exact minute. “What do you wanna drink, squirt? Capri sun? Water?”

 

“A Capri Sun!” Morgan jumps up and down. 

 

“Which one, there’s a billion of them?”

 

“Fruit punch!” Morgan answers a little loudly for an indoor voice. 

 

“Okay, then,” Tony swipes a fruit punch Capri Sun from the fridge door and hands it to his daughter who is quick to get the straw out and stab it into the pouch, sipping and sipping endlessly. He has no idea why kids adore those so much, but it’s okay. It’s for his daughter. 

 

The kabobs are finished and Tony pulls them out of the microwave, sliding them onto a plate and handing them to his daughter with a napkin. She takes her food and plops down on a barstool, munching her food. “Thanks, Daddy!”

 

“Your welcome, kiddo, but try not to talk when you have food in your mouth.”

 

Morgan nods and keeps eating, filling her toddler-sized belly to become full. It gives Tony some time to chill for a minute, maybe snack on pretzels or heat up the leftover sliders from yesterday. He felt kinda lazy, right now, but it may go away soon. Before he knows it, though, he turns around and Morgan has brought her plate to the sink, using the spray function of the faucet and washing the dish off with water and then goes to throw her drink away. “All gone!” She grins. 

 

Tony blinks. “That was quick, squirt.”

 

“I know!” She simply answers. Morgan runs over to the giant cushions of the sofa and flops down, Dahlia jumping on top and the girl immediately skyrockets into a giggle fit as Lilac also jumps up and Poppy just runs up the stairs, considering she’s only ten pounds and she’s short. 

 

Tony comes over and just smiles from ear-to-ear. “You getting attacked by the doggos, there, Morg?”

 

“Y-y-YEAH!” She pushes out between laughs and licks to the face. “Dah-Lilac-AHH!” She screeches. 

 

Pepper walks out at last from her office, really tired of dealing with business people, and she’s greeted by the precious scene occurring in their living room. “Hey, Morgan?” She tries, stifling a laugh. 

 

Morgan bolts up, the dogs backing away from the child’s body. “Yes, Mommy?”

 

“I was talking to Caroline’s mom and you and Caroline are a go for a playdate tomorrow,” The mom smiles, knowing Morgan was going to jump up and down in three, two, one-

 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Morgan exclaims. 

 

“And,” Pepper begins to add. Her daughter might screech about this part. “The Guardians are coming down in a few days, so you get to-”

 

“YES!” Morgan yelps. It’s better than screeching, but still kinda loud. She desperately misses Kamira Quill, the hybrid daughter who’s her age and is her best friend who’s always off the planet. The girl was a total mixture of both Peter Quill and Gamora, which created a pretty cute kid. Plus, Groot was also fun to play with, being the most random thing in the universe: a literal tree. 

 

“I’m glad you’re happy, honey.” Pepper directs her attention to her husband. “We’ll just need to make sure the guest rooms are set and stuff like that.” 

 

“Drax and Rocket usually sleep on the ship since, supposedly, Drax’s snoring is unbearable, and Rocket is just…I dunno.”

 

“I mean, like, he  _ is _ a raccoon, Tony, they probably do weird things in their sleep,” Pepper shrugs. 

 

“He claims otherwise,” Tony shrugs back. “As for Nebula and Mantis, they share a room, so the third guest room we don’t have to worry about.”

 

Pepper thinks for a moment. “Are Nebs and Mantis…” 

 

“I honestly have no idea, Pep,” Tony answers. He barely talks to the Guardians, so he has no idea if any of them have relationships besides Quill and Gamora. Although he had to admit, those two would be a hilarious contrast considering Mantis’s cheery innocence and Nebula’s dark angst. 

 

Morgan was excited that her aunts and uncles were coming, plus her best intergalactic friend. They always had a blast when they stopped on Earth for a few days to a week to chill at the Stark farmhouse. But then she thinks of something, Morgan gasps. “I should get her something!”

 

“Like what, sweetie?” Tony sits down beside her body now flopped on the sofa. 

 

“A movie? A book? A game? I don’t know... _ WAIT _ ! I know! A vinyl disk for their vinyl player!”

 

“Do you know a song she likes, honey?” Pepper inquires, sitting down on the sofa beside her. 

 

“She really likes Jimmy Eats World music,” Morgan remembers. 

 

“Fri, could you order one, please?” Tony asks his A.I, hearing her say she’s on and he tells her thanks. “We still gotta do writing and some history, though.”

 

Pepper took over for Tony and he decides to go tinker just a bit in the tech garage. No, he’s not Iron Man, anymore, and never again unless someone catcalls Pepper or a boy breaks Morgan’s heart. He’s now a devoted husband and devoted dad, not a devoted superhero, period. Tony has no idea how he still has his life, but he’s going to make the most of it with the ones he loves, even though the knows how very little he deserves them, which is zero percent, so he’s incredibly lucky. There is no other way he would spend his life but with them...That doesn’t mean he’s absolutely banned from messing with tech, though. 

 

About two hours goes by fast and he hears the back door open as he’s changing something on a holographic blueprint. “Whatcha doing, daddy?”

 

Tony turns around in the spinning comfy chair he has for his space of technological devotion. He wants to tell her because he, as a dad, is physically unable to keep many secrets from his little girl, but he probably really shouldn’t because she’ll end up leaking it out to mom, who wouldn’t be incredibly content about it. “Um…”

 

“One of your suits?” Morgan raises her brows and guesses. 

 

“You caught me,” Tony throws his hands up. “You can  _ not  _ tell mommy, though, okay, sweetie?”

 

“Okay,” Morgan practically bounces down the steps and runs to sit on his lap. She points at what he was tweaking. “What’s that?”

 

“That is part of what keeps the suit cool so nothing explodes and I don’t get overheated. It’s very crucial, just as pretty much everything else is or it can hurt you.”

 

Morgan hums at his explanation. “What do you use for it?”

 

Tony goes into another science-tech explanation that he knows his little girl probably won’t understand, but she rather hear and not understand it than not hear at all. Morgan’s eyes shine like gemstones in the interest of what her dad is saying, despite not understanding any of it. It was alright, though, because she had many years to learn. 

 

“Boss, your wife tells me to remind you and Morgan to walk the dogs before eight pm,” Friday rings in. 

 

“Thank you, Fri.” Tony stands up and stretches his arms after spending forever taking few steps and staring at screens. “Whaddya say, Morgan? Let’s go get the dogs and walk them?”

 

The duo goes inside, the kitchen lit up and the news is on across from where Pepper is lying on the sofa with the dogs, wearing pale blue cashmere-blend loungewear with her strawberry blonde locks hanging down. Lilac and Poppy are snuggling with her while Dahlia just strolls around the living room, sitting down as Morgan comes to greet her mom, giving incentive for Pepper to immediately click to another channel that was not talking about congressmen and congresswomen not being able to decide on absolutely anything. “Hey, sweetie, how are you?” Pepper fingers through a strand of her daughter’s hair, Morgan’s body flopping down beside her since the sofa was big enough for three people or even four to lie down at the same time. “I’m good! We’re gonna walk the doggies!”

 

“You are, are you? I’m done with work, would you like me to come with you?” Pepper actually boops her daughter’s nose, a habit she’s picked up from Tony. 

 

“Yeah!” Little Morgan immediately hops up from the sofa and goes to the dog closet where the leashes and harnesses were, the herd of dogs following her knowing that they get to go on another walk. 

 

Pepper practically slides off the sofa and gets back onto her feet, going to give her husband a kiss. “I still wonder what you work on out there besides your suits,” She ponders aloud. 

 

“Well, there’s always endless house defensive mechanisms I can make. I literally made this house a weather shield so it’s impossible for a tornado to hurt us or the house. If I can do that, I can probably do anything.” 

 

Pepper playfully rolls her eyes as her husband wonders if Stephen Strange could do a defense spell around the house, despite not quite liking him. “Sounds tempting, but then it’s just another person who knows we live in Texas, of all places. That’s a big change from California. Only the team, the Guardians, Happy, Rhodey, and my parents know where we live.  _ No one _ else,” She reminds firmly. 

 

“You’re right, you’re right,” Tony admits. “I just want us to be safe but if he leaked our location, I would kill him on the spot.”

 

“Oh, you’d kill the whimsical wizard on the spot, huh?” Pepper laughs. “Well, he honestly might get a few good kicks into you.”

 

“Mm, don’t tell him that, it’ll really get to his egoistic head,” Tony says in response. 

 

Pepper makes a face. “You hypocrite!”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Tony smirks. His eyes are gazing into his wife’s face with pure adoration. “You know how much I love you?”

 

“Do you know how much I love you?” Pepper returns. 

 

“How much could that be, I wonder?” Tony resists a laugh. 

 

“You and Morgan I love more than anything in the whole world.”

 

“Wow, looks like we have common, Miss Potts!” He jokes, sliding his hands onto his wife’s hips again like earlier, leaning his head in a good bit. 

 

“Indeed we do,” Pepper leans in further and adds, “Mr. Stark,” before sealing her lips onto his with love. His idea from much earlier in the day was slowly morphing into becoming more tempting. Perhaps when they got back home and when Morgan was fast asleep? She was amazing at sleeping, just like her daddy. 

 

“I got them ready!” Morgan exclaims at the side door with three leashes in her hand, three dogs sitting patiently with jubilant expressions. 

 

“Oh! Yeah!” Pepper pulls away. It was alright, though, because she got to walk outside in the cool Texan twilight with her husband, daughter, and three dogs. This was definitely not the vision, at one point, but this was perfection she could have never imagined. 

 

“Okie dokie,” Tony walks over. “I got Poppy,” He lets his daughter hand him the Yorkie’s aqua leash, his wife taking Lilac’s, and Morgan still keeps Dahlia’s, now heading outside where a full moon sits boldly in the sky, stars waiting for the sky to darken to show their own light. 

 

Five minutes in, Morgan finally takes a break from bouncing in her bubble to bounce and say something to her daddy who was on her left while her mommy was on her right, their non-leash-holding hands in her petite ones that they cherished so greatly. “Daddy, what do you want to do for your birthday?”

 

Tony blinks. “Sweetheart, that’s like, a month away,” He replies with no judgment. 

 

“I still wanna know,” Morgan shrugs. 

 

“Well…” He trails. “I want to spend the whole day like I love to every single day of my life with my most incredible baby girl and the most wonderful love of my life in the whole wide universe.”

 

“Aww!” Morgan scrunches her nose up with an additional giggle. “But what about for a party?” 

 

“A party? Why would I do that?”

 

“So you can have your friends there with you!”

 

Sweet little Morgan doesn’t quite know how things have been when he’s had “friends” who weren’t Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey, but time helped just a good enough bit with things, and they eventually found a way to settle and try all over again-even with Steve, who was the hardest. He could admit it was nice to have them around, but all he needed at the end of the day was his family. Period. 

 

Pepper shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind. I haven’t seen Nat or Bruce in a while, or even Happy and Rhodey. That’s actually a good idea, Morgan. It also gives you another excuse to invite the Guardians so you can spend more time with Kamira.”

 

Morgan is so smiley and is so excited about the idea that Tony can’t resist. “We’ll see what we could do.”

 

Within the next few minutes, Morgan gasps as they pass the neighborhood pond at the front of the community that’s quiet at the hour. “Look at the duckies!” She points. 

 

Tony and Pepper look over to the area of water that peacefully reflects the slowly-becoming-darker-and-more-starry sky. There is a collection of ducks, a mom and many babies, swimming across the water. They were pretty close to the shore, so Pepper lets the young girl go look at them when she asks if she can, the two parents following slowly behind with Poppy now in their care. 

 

“It’s so gorgeous out here,” Pepper whispers breathlessly. 

 

Tony smirks with his hand intertwined with his wife’s. “Permission to be cliche and cheesy?”

 

Pepper playfully rolls her eyes. “Granted?”

 

“The stars are not as beautiful as-”

 

Pepper has this petite, odd snort in response.

 

“You, nor are they as brilliant and as perfect as you, either...Same goes for Morgan.”

 

The businesswoman looks at their daughter who’s bent down at the pond’s edge, only a foot away from the passing baby ducks and its leader mama. “Hi, duckies! You’re so cute!” She giggles. 

 

Pepper sighs contently. “How did we make such a perfect little girl?”

 

“You,” Tony answers. 

 

“No, you,” Pepper throws back, looking at him. 

 

Tony’s eyes peer out their corners. “Don’t look at me, I’m a mess.”

 

Pepper laughs and leans her head onto his shoulder. “You’re my mess, though. You’re the mess that made me whole.”

 

Tony presses a kiss to his wife’s temple. “I can’t live without you,” He whispers.

 

“You can’t even remember your social security number without me.”

 

“Five-eight-two-four-two-zero-nine-eight-two,” Tony contradicts with ease. He loves to prove her wrong or to impress her. 

 

“Good job, honey,” Pepper giggles. “You’re almost fifty and you can finally remember your social security number.”

 

“I could fluently remember it years ago, shush,” Tony jokes. 

 

“Mommy, Daddy, could we get duckies?!” Morgan rushes back up to them, the ducks having now continued on their quest around the lake. 

 

Tony smirks. “It’s always a possibility.”

 

“Tony!” Pepper laughs. “Next thing you know, we’re gonna have a farm!”

 

“That’s okay,” He turns his head to her. “We could always get the cute baby cows that Morgan got photography with, too? Pigs? Lambs?”

 

“What’s the sudden animal obsession?” Pepper inquires. 

 

“Morgan started it with wanting a dog.”

 

“We have three.”

 

“And we adore them, don’t we, you three?” Tony looks down at them. Lilac looks up with a “who, me?” face before the famous “Sammy smile” comes to play. 

 

“You’re so cute,” Pepper giggles. “You really all are.” 

 

The family of three, or six, make their way back home right as it hits navy blue darkness, Morgan immediately rushing upstairs to undress and give herself a bath. She had just started doing so about a month ago, and as much as both parents were willing to help their daughter, it did give them a big break. 

 

The dogs now chilling on their own beds and Morgan in the bath, Pepper stretches her arms up in the air. “I am going to take a very nice bubble bath,” She sighs, thinking of the new bath milk and bath bombs she had purchased among other things. When she opens her eyes back up, Pepper really sees how Tony is trying to contain himself with this smirk-yet-definitely-not-a-smirk. “We have an oversized jacuzzi tub for a reason, Tony.”

 

They were both definitely reminded of that for a good hour.

 

Within an hour and forty minutes after her short bath, Morgan looks up from her new book, the scent of a guava mango candle still rushes up her nose despite being lit for fifteen minutes on her bedside in the dark, the curtains still open to the night. “Hi!”

 

“Hey, sweetheart,” Pepper responds with her husband beside her, Poppy in Tony’s arms. “We both had a really fun idea we thought you’d enjoy since it’s been such clear skies.”

 

Fast forward to a few minutes later, they have gathered tons of blankets, giant pillows, and a worn sateen sheet set to toss in the pickup of their Ram fifteen-hundred truck they bought as a third car besides Pepper’s Cadillac sedan and the family Lincoln SUV (especially if they went wandering around the west USA national parks like they pondered). Morgan sits excitedly in the backseat with the dogs, holding Poppy in her lap, as Tony drives far from the house to the middle of nowhere, waiting for Pepper to finally tell him when the distance was enough. Texas could be a beautiful place for stargazing, especially that tons of the Longhorn state was void of strenuous light pollution that Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio gave off. You definitely did not get this in New York City or Malibu. An ocean or a city view, yes, but no stars. 

 

Pepper finally halts him and Tony stops the truck, parking it in the field. When he and his wife get out, he turns around and can just barely see their house that looks like a spec compared to the vastness of the now-somewhat taller and breezier green grass. 

 

“It feels so good out,” Pepper whispers, not expecting such airy-ness to the oxygen of the expanse as Tony carries his daughter out of the car, the herd following. Lilac and Dahlia romp around in the field while Poppy is still being held by Morgan as Tony and Pepper set up the back starting with throwing tons of pillows on the air mattress blown up already that is practically molded to the truck bed since it fits so perfectly. They put on the sateen sheets and toss the endless amount of blankets and pillows on top, making an incredibly comfy paradise. 

 

“That looks good to me,” Tony nods, but he remembers that they, of course, have the furry babies as his wife and child get up there. He looks down at the two big dogs, Lilac and Dahlia, grinning at him with glee. 

 

Tony sighs, but not in an irritating way. “You’re so spoiled, I swear. That’s okay, though, you two are adorable doafs.” He lifts Dahlia up first into the pickup bed, the golden retriever going to cuddle on Pepper’s right side while Morgan snuggles down on her left. Then, Lilac, is picked up and settles down at the edge with the “Sammy smile” still intact. Finally, does Tony slide on beside his daughter, being the creme of the oreo, him and Pepper the cookie. When he finally feels relaxed, Lilac suddenly gets up to stand on top of him, staring the man down with her graceful black eyes and precious expression. 

 

Tony just smiles. “Yes, I love you, too.”

 

Morgan beside him giggles and as Lilac gets off and settles down at the toddler’s feet, yet the dog’s fluffy head is tucked between Tony and Morgan’s ankles. Meanwhile, the father leans in and cups his daughter’s soft cheek. “And I love you. I love you so much.”

 

“I love you too, Daddy,” Morgan replies softly, bumping her nose against her dad, drawing out a soft chuckle. 

 

Pepper turns over to face her daughter and her husband on the girl’s other side. “The meteor shower should be coming up any minute. Look,” She points to the sky. 

 

The family lies on their backs, waiting patiently for it to come, flash, and disappear within a short period of time. When it finally does begin, though, a loud “wow,” is the first thing to come from the young girl’s mouth. 

 

“That is pretty impressive,” Tony mutters, the reflection of the night sky and its light show glazing over his world of brown hue.

 

“Yeah,” Pepper breathes out, continuing to watch the dramatic show just above their heads, their eyes sparkling. 

 

The sky’s dark colors and the contrast of the stars, constellations, and the meteor shower has them in a state of awe, but Morgan, most of all. Poppy has come to snuggle behind Tony’s head, a place she likes to snuggle often and her dad has no idea why. Dahlia is peacefully out beside Pepper, but Lilac is still awake, just mellow, readjusting every three minutes. There is nothing for miles except for the house where they reside stands boldly in the distance looking like a speck of dust if the world around them was a camera. The world was not a camera, however. It was real, and it was theirs in this very moment in time. Even as conflict flourishes in the universe, a war here, poverty there, another has lost a loved one, and existence is never truly safe. As Tony watches his baby girl drift off and he sees the glow of the stars in his wife’s crystal blue orbs, the addition of a literal Yorkie on his head and two more dogs with them, he knows he has absolutely everything he could ever need or want. 

 

He is happy. 

 

“Did you really mean it when you said you were thinking about another one?” Pepper whispers, Morgan now huddled close to the two of them and is asleep.

 

Tony softly smiles, already turnt over onto his side so he could look at his wife’s porcelain face. “If you wanted to expand the family beyond a child and three furry ones...We could have another redhead, but with your freckles and crystal blue eyes? Just as precious as Morgan?”

 

“We could think about it,” Pepper’s lips are curled in return as her husband’s are. “I’ve always liked the name Sophia...Maybe Audrey?”

 

“Madelaine? Julie?”

 

“Julie’s a sweet name,” Pepper thinks aloud. “But if it’s a boy?”

 

“Well, for one, we’ll include James somewhere in his name for Rhodey...and James Tiberius Kirk.”

 

“Oh my god,” Pepper sighs. Tony was a known sci-fic dork for Star Trek. Every single show and character. 

 

“Okay, okay, we don’t have to name him for Captain Kirk, just Rhodey!” Tony reforms. “ ...But I’ve always liked the name Oliver.”

 

“Oliver? Oh, Tony, that’s adorable,” She compliments. “Little Oliver ‘Ollie’ Stark?”

 

“Or there’s a lot of weird names I like. Like, for a girl, there’s the name Juniper, Willow, Ruby, I’ve always thought Flora was cute.”

 

“You’ve been putting a scary amount of thought into this, haven’t you?” Pepper raises her brows. 

 

“No, I just remember from these from when we were naming Morgan. Morgan Harlow Stark turned out pretty cute, I have to say. She’s just a precious rain of sunshine,” Tony plays with a strand of his daughter’s hair without waking her. 

 

“Well,” Pepper murmurs. “I...do like Juniper...and Flora. I love Oliver for a boy-Tony, we don’t know if we’re having a second kid-” She swaps subjects. 

 

“Juniper Rose Stark?” Tony comes up with. 

 

“I actually really like that. You could also do Julie Rose Stark, too.”

 

“Yeah.” Tony brushes his fingers against Pepper’s cold, feminine cheek. “I love you so much, Pepper,” He whispers with endless love in his heart. 

 

“I love you too, Tony,” Pepper returns, leaning in to give him a warm kiss before they begin to drift off as they inevitably would. 

 

The father pecks his daughter on the temple before he finally relaxes his whole body. “You, too, my baby girl...You and your mom more than anything.”

 

It is at moments like these that Tony Stark truly knows how to breathe. 

**Author's Note:**

> yeah that was long!
> 
> I hope you loved it! Comment if you like below! Thank you for reading!
> 
> Here is a Stark Farmhouse Life pinterest board for stuffies! 
> 
> https://www.pinterest.com/SydneySapphire/stark-farmhouse-life/


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